Pleating attachment for sewing machines



H. GUERARD PLEATING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINES June 13, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 15, 1956 192 1172 zremzrd June 13, 1961 H. GUERARD 2,938,027

PLEATING ATTACHMENT FOR SEWING MACHINES Filed Oct. 15, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 7f/orgg United States Patent Q The present invention pertains to a novelmechanism',

attachable to ordinary sewing machines to perform p'1eating.-

At present, pleating is accomplished by means of large, expensive machines built solely for that purpose:

Some factories working on fabricsrequire pleating from time to time but not to such'an extent as to warrant the purchase of special machinery. In suchcases', work must;

either be refused or turned over to special shops.

The principal object of this invention .is to provide a:

pleating mechanism that can readily be applie'd'to a conventional commercial or domestic sewing machine. In the accomplishment of this object, a pair of. bearing. plates is mounted on the head of the machine to sup'-: port an auxiliary shaft geared to the main shaft of the machine. These shafts operate two parts of .the mechanism which, through suitable connections, reciprocate two pusher blades oppositely to each other-and adjacentto the sewing machine needle. 'These plates: formythe. folds or pleats and also advance thelwork' while the; needle either stitchesthe folds. in place orstitche's the folds in place and simultaneously's'ews' the pleating :to;

the base fabric.

'The invention is fully disclosed by wa bf .x'am'ba in the following description and in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of a sewing machine equipped with the device ofv the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of. a pieceof-the' pleating; I I Y FIGURE 3 is a detail section illustrating the operation; FIGURE 4 is a plan view of the machine shown in FIGURE 1; FIGURE 5 is aperspective view of the pleating plied to the base fabric; a FIGURE 6 is another detail section showing another stage in the operation;

- FIGURE 7 is an end view of attachment applied thereto;

FIGURE 8 is an opposite end view, enlarged and showing the attachment applied to a machine;{ 1

the machine with the FIGURE 9 is adetail plan view oflthe attachment and its drive; f FIGURE 10 is a'sectionon the 'line 101'0' ofFIG- URE 8;

FIGURE 1 1 is a section on the line 11-11 of FIG- URE 8;

FIGURE 12 is a detail plan view of the shoes and pusher blades; and

FIGURE 13 is a section on the line 13-13 of FIG- URE 8.

Reference to these views will now be made by use of like characters which are employed to designate corresponding parts throughout.

In FIGURES 1 and 4 is shown a sewing machine head 1 to which the pleating attachment of the invention is applied. A bearing plate 2 (FIGURE 4) is attached to one end of the head and carries a gear box 3. A shaft 4 is journaled in the plate 2 and is connected by a chain 5 to the usual shaft 6 of the machine. Reduction gearing 7 is mounted in the box 3, and the shaft 4 extends to another bearing plate 8 fixed at the other end of the machine. A swivel joint 9 is preferably inserted in the shaft 4, as shown in FIGURE 4.

Journalled in the plate 8 are shafts 10 and 11 parallel; to the shaft 4, the shaft 11 being directly below the shaft 4 as shown in FIGURE 8-. The shaft 4 carries a pinion 12 meshing with a gear 13 fast on the shaft 10; the

shaft 10 also carries a pinion 14 which meshes with a gear 15 fast on the shaft 11. The shaft 'llalso carries a cam disk on the opposite side of the plate 8, as shown The cam action; is de-' in FIGURE 8 in dottedlines. rived from a groove17 in the disk '16, the groove being somewhat in the shape of a figureeight, as may be seen in broken lines in FIGURE 8. 7 1

Between the plate8 and disk116, the shaft 4 carries a crank disk 18 (FIGURES 9 and 10) to actuatea link 19-- which has oneend 19' pivoted -to the disk (FIGURES 4, 8 and 9).

' rotatably'mounted in-the plate 8; A lever 21 has one end pivotally-suspended from the free end of the link 19 and its other end keyed to the rock shaft 20, whereby the shaft 20 is oscillated as the crank disk 18 rotates.,

A stub shaft 21 is rotatably mounted in the plate 8 at ,g a distance forwardly from the shaft 20. Slotted cross levers 22 and 23'are secured fixedly by suitable clamp-' ing means 21a respectively to the shafts 20 and 21".

leverage of this device for oscillating the shaft 21 to the;

desired degree is regulated by. adjustment 'of the clamp;

25 in the slots 24; known type of clamp 25 con-I sis'ts as shown in FIGURE 13, of the'flanged bolt 25a,

bushing 25b,washer 25cand nut 25d. The clamp 25-is projects from the free endof a rocking arm 28;;which is freely pivoted on shaft 20 intermediate its ends (see FIGURE 11).. From the other'free endof this arm 28 is pivotally suspended at-28f a link 29. A lever-31 is pivotally attached 'at its end 31, to the lower end of link 29 and has its otherend fast on a shaft 30' which is freely rotatably mounted on the lower end of lever 26 asshown in FIGURES l and 4. A link 30 has its center portion secured to shaft 30'. The reciprocating presser bar-32 of 'the machine carries "a laterally extending bracket '33(FIGURESI and '10) in 'which is mountedran L -shap edaod 34 having its horizontal portion lying in front of the presser foot 35 on the presser bar 32. This portion of the rod carries a shoe 36 sloping downward toward the foot 35. The foot 35 carries another shoe 37 sloping upward over the shoe 36 and forming a V therewith.

A resilient pusher blade 38 is fixed to the upper end of the link 30 in a plane at right angles thereto and extends under the shoe 37. Another resilient pusher blade 39 is secured to the lower end of the link 30 and extends between the blade 38 and the shoe 36, as shown in FIG- URE 8.

As shown in FIGURE 12, the pusher blades 38 and 39 are in the nature of flat plates slotted lengthwise at 40 to form fingers 41 at the pushing end. The middle finger is notched at 42 to accommodate the usual sewing needle 43.

The operation of the device may be understood from an examination of FIGURES 3, 6, and 8. The linkage extending from the crank disk '18 oscillates the lever 26 and with it the entire assembly of pusher blades 38 and Patented June 13, 1961;

A rock shaft 20 (FIGURES 8 and I l) 9. The cam 16 acting on the pin 27 through its cam groove 17 actuates the members 28, 29, 30 and 31 and with them the two pusher blades 38 and 39 in an up and down movement. It will be appreciated from the relative diameters of the gears 12, 13, 114m that the cam 17 rotates at onequarter the speed of the crank disk 18. Because the cam groove -17 hastwo symmetrical parts the rock arm 28 will make two complete cycles for each rotation of cam 16 or one cycletor every two cycles of swinging arm 26. When pin 27 is in the radially recessed portion of-the cam groove 17, as shown in FIGURE 8, the link is in lowered position corresponding-to a position of link 30 in which-the pusher blades are downwardly inclined with the lower pusher blade 39 contacting lower shoe 36 as shown in FIG URE 8. On the other hand when pin 27 rides in either one of the circular portions of the cam groove 17, double-arrned lever 28 "is swung to such a position as torotate the link 30 and consequently raise-the pusher blades whiohtake asmaller downward inclination-with the-upper pusher blade adapted to contact the upper sho'e 37. the crank and the cam are 'so related to each other that during a first inward movement or active stroke pf the assembly of the pusher blades toward .the sewing needle 43, the pusher bladesc38 and 39 remain in their lower inclinationwhereas in the next activestroke of the assembly of pusher blades the latter remain in their upper inclination.

' From the 'toregoingitwillbe understood that inward movement of the assembly of pusher blades through the action of lever 26, with the pusher blades in downwardly inclined position, will cause theupper pusherb1ade 38 to engagethe top surface of the fabric 46 fed-between the-two pusher blades as indicated-inl IGURE 3." The fabric will be pushed'by'blade 38 at a' faster s'peedthan the rateof feed of the sewing machine and consequently the fold illustrated in FIGURE 3 will be formedi and will be held against the upper shoe 3-7 un til engaged-be! 4 directly on top of the table 1' under the inclined lower shoe 3.6 vas clearly shown in FIGURES 3 and 6 and the pleating is formed on top of the fabric 47 and stitched thereto by line of stitching 50 which corresponds to line of stitching 48. Upon lifting of the presser foot bar 32, the lowershoe 36 raises .thejfree ends of the resilient pusher blades 38 and 3 9 to thereby make a fiee'pa'ssage for the lp ase vfabric 47.

Although 'a specific embodiment of the present invention has been illustrated and described, itis understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope or the invention as indicated by the appended claims.

I claim: a V g 1. In a pleating device for a sewing machine-having a work-plate, .a needle, a ,presser foot, and .a vertically reciprocable Tpresser foot bar to which said resser toot is secured, .a pairof superposed converging shoes adaptfed to be positioned in front of vthe needleinalignment with the line of feed .ofthe machineflthellnwer one of said shoes being downwardly inclined from front to baek above said work plate, sa'idjconvergingshoes-being supported by said .p'res s'er foot bar, to be vertieally reciprocable therewith, alink, a pair of pusher blades of resilient material arranged'in spaced relation one on top of the other and .each having one end fixedly secured to one end of said link 'and having itsother end engaging between theisaid converging shoes .andiliftable by the lower one ofsaid shoes uponuraisinpgm yement of the latterQQa lever pivotallysupported wabgzvut arotation agris disposed lwellabove the saidshoes for swinging movement towards and away. from said :conve gill .ishqe 3 .3 link being .pivotallymounted intermediate its ends on the lower end?of said lever,.saidlihkQandlQWer endof tween the presser foot 35- and'the table or work support 1' of the sewing machine,where it willbestitched in the regular manner by the sewingneedle 43 as indicated by-the line of; stitching 48 inFIGURE The next pleat will be formed on the successive inwardmovementor active stroke of theassembly of pusher blades with the pusher-blades in less -incli ned positionfas shown in FlGllREo in which ease the lowe'r pusher bladeL39 will engage the under face of the fabric 46- andlpiishLlthe engaged portion of the fabric at a faster speed thanlthe rate of ieQd the sewing machine. Thust-he .pleat shown in F-IGURE-6 will be formedand again engaged between the-tabled and theresser foot 35. Thus..'lthe box pleat shown in F lfiUlkE l-will be automatically ob? tained. In accordance withthe present inventionnit .is also possibleto simultaneously form the pleats and. stitch themfltoa base fabric 47. In this case, thebase fabric 47 is 'fed into the-sewing machine in the usual manner said lever being spaced from said work-platemeans for swinging saidlever aboutjits'axisand means .for eseillatin'g-s'aid'link with respect to, said lever intirned relation to the swinging of said lever abontits axis.

2. -In apleating device 'as claimedin claim; 1, vwherein the upper one of said converging, shoes is adapted to be rigidly connected to the .pre sser foot of the sewing machine and the lower one of the said converging surfaces-is maintained in position by agbracket adapted to i be secured to the press'er foot bar of said sewing machine.

V References Cited in the file ofthis patent UNITED sTAT'EsPArnNTs V 

